Club Penumbra
Club Penumbra is a famous part of the Seattle shadows' history, and pehaps the the longest-running shadow night club still operating in the metroplex, if not the world. The Penumbra has survivedevents like the late-50s mob war, the shutdown of the nearby Renraku Arcology (which is just across the road; during shutdown times, the Penumbra had become one of the JTF soldiers' most popular hangouts, which was really bad for the shadow biz going on here), the Crash and subsequent riots, and the Tempo underworld war. Its design is largely unchanged from back when it opened decades ago, - an industrial moonscape style accented with neon and holographic displays and Tridscreens. Small, intimate tables and shadowy nooks ofer privacy at an affordable price; all overlooking a sunken central dance floor in a stylized crater. The Club has taken advantage of its seniority in Seattle scene with weekly “retro-nights” on “Flashback Fridays” for those who want to party like it’s 2049, and draws a considerable crowd of "shadowrunner tourists" and wannabes, but still managed to cling to it's reputation as a place to get actual biz done. The entrance is made up like an airlock, appearing like part of a space station, though it's actually a disused laboratory door. It's bright, white, a very retro SciFi feel. Bouncers on dut usuall are either BBT (Big Bad Troll), or MLD (Mean Little Dwarf). Both are your average street predator fit into good clothes, and both are polite enough to ask before they hurt you. Once inside, you walk through a weapons scanner (rating 5) and will be asked to check all weapons at the checkroom, where you'll get an RFID-tagged plastic chip imprinted with the club's stylized sunspot logo in return. Magical first comers will have a short word with an albino woman, dressed in white leathers. Tall, lean, red eyes, short white hair. She won't speak much, but will make her point about the consequences of misbehavior clear nonetheless. After you exit the 'airlock' you stand on the moonscape first floor. Uneven floor, pockmarked by micrometeorite impacts, ceiling dotted with stars. The dancefloor is in a larger crater in the center of the room with a primitive-looking, bare metal stage (made famous by the one and only Concrete Dreams gig here, Holos of which frequently feature in the club system's rotation) on the rim of the crater, towards the left wall, with backstage entries. A bit further towards the entry is a corridor that leads to the toilets, a private (and locked) door upstairs to the owner's office and another private (and locked) door to the backstage area, with a few rooms for clandestine meetings. The corridor has the same 'moon rock' surface as the rest of the first floor, but with additional metal grating over it. This metal grating repeats itself in the two bar areas (one immediately to the right after leaving the airlock, the other on the opposite wall) and in the alcoves on the right and opposite wall. These alcoves are the only locations where you can sit on the first floor, apart from a few bar stools The tables and benches in the alcoves are designed as space shuttle seats and similar space ship interior, as well as both bars. A few standing tables are placed around the dance floor. There's another short corridor on the right wall, with a metal grating staircase leading to the second floor, a gallery overlooking the first floor through spaceship window frames (no glass, though). Here, you can get small snacks, mostly soy and sit around tables, similar in design to the ones in the alcoves on the first floor. The Penumbra is something of a relic of the Seattle shadows, refusing to call it quits in spite of the changing times. It stubbornly kept its doors open through the Arcology Shutdown, the Crash, and everything else that has happened in Seattle for the past thirty years or so. Its clientele is largely made up now of equally stubborn old-timers and a smattering of new kids who like the retro-style of it. The Penumbra nearly went under for good a couple years ago, when the then-owners were trying to unload it and fronts for both the Mafia and the Yakuza seemed interested, leading to a bidding war that nearly turned into a gang war. Things turned around at the eleventh hour, however, when a mysterious co-op bought the place out from under both sides and declared that the Penumbra’s tradition as “neutral ground” would continue. Rumor has it the buyers were former shadowrunners who spent their retirement nest egg on the place. Employees Jono (Jonesy Warner), the elven barkeeper on the bar right at the entrance. He has hollow eyes and is not the best looking elf, but he's a wizard with the bottles and makes mean cocktails.